


Sadness By Proxy

by readbetweenthelions



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alcoholism, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 04:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readbetweenthelions/pseuds/readbetweenthelions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce gets news that Betty has died and Tony is frustrated because he can't help Bruce.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sadness By Proxy

You know that feeling when someone you love is really sad, but there’s nothing you can do for them, so you basically just have to sit there and pretend everything is okay but it actually isn’t, and you just have to pretend you aren’t upset because you need to be strong for them, because no matter how upset you because they’re sad you know that they are feeling _so much worse,_ and you can’t say anything about how sad you are because you don’t have the right to be sad over the thing they’re sad about, except you do because you love this person and when they’re sad you’re sad, but you can’t do anything and you can’t even vent because they will probably find out about it and everything will just get worse?

That was the way Tony felt, and he was an awful, stomach-churning mix of sad and frustrated. There wasn’t anything he could do for Bruce, and Tony knew it.

Tony wished Pepper was here. Pepper was good at these things - good at helping, good at knowing what to say, good at telling people everything would be okay and having them actually believe it. Tony couldn’t do any of those things. What _could_ he do? He could make jokes and get angry and go fight things, but he had no idea what to do when the problem wasn’t something you could shoot lasers at until it went away. That was the reason he’d been an alcoholic for so long - he wasn’t good at fighting off problems that didn’t have a physical source. There was nothing Tony could do, and it tore him up inside. 

Bruce hadn’t even sobbed. He’d cried, yes, he was still crying now, tears leaking silently out of his eyes and running over his temples and dampening his graying curls as he leaned his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. He’d been excited, ecstatic beyond belief, when Fury had told him SHIELD had cleared his name with General Ross and his gang, because it meant he might get to see Betty. Betty, who he’d gone into hiding to protect. Betty, who Bruce had just found out was dead, of cancer, of working with the same radiation that had cursed Bruce with the Hulk.

It probably wasn’t too much for Bruce. Bruce had seen and experienced a lot of awful things in his life, and, after all, he’d been living without Betty for years now. But the old wound had only just healed up, and this news was twisting a knife into the new, sensitive skin that had been left by the scab of leaving Betty the first time. Bruce would probably be alright, but right now he wasn’t, and it made Tony want to punch things, to fight someone, to go do something to take out his frustration before it all came flowing out of him and ruined everything.

It was ridiculous, sitting around here with all this impotent rage building up in him. Tony couldn’t do anything, Bruce couldn’t do anything, no one could do anything about this situation. Nothing could fix it but time, but right now, it was unbearable. The more Tony fought the urge to break everything in this stupid penthouse, the angrier he got. Tony wanted to scream, to yell, to rage against the unfairness of it all, to do anything and everything to make it all go away, but none of it would help. Tony couldn’t even be properly sad, because it wasn’t his problem. But it was Bruce’s problem, which made it Tony’s problem. Tony Stark _did_ have a heart, and right now it was breaking for his best friend.

Tony downed his glass of scotch in one gulp. He couldn’t sit still any longer. He left Bruce sitting silently on the couch and headed to the lab to don the suit.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my best friend, who lost her dad to cancer.


End file.
